Dancing With The Stars Season 24, Week 10 FINALS, Night 2 It’s Week 10/The Finals/The Finale, Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin hosted. Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, Julianne Hough, and Bruno Tonioli judged. The Remaining Cast: Val Chmerkovskiy + Normani Kordei, Singer Emma Slater + Rashad Jennings, NFL Running Back Lindsay Arnold + David Ross, CHI Cubs Baseball Catcher (won 2016 World Series; retired) Dancing With The Stars: Week 10 Finals, Night 2/The Finale, Analysis & Results (May 23, 2017) This is Finals Week on Dancing with the Stars! It’s basically a big party that everyone came home for. The show began at the outdoor venue/stage, which turned out to be just beyond the ballroom. Much of the night Erin was outdoors while Tom ran things in the ballroom, but Erin was back and forth. We saw clips reviewing the three finalists’ respective journeys over the past 10 weeks and were reminded that they would have to do one more dance for the judges to score (the fusion dance). That was when they revealed that Rashad had logged 100+ more rehearsal hours than the other finalists, which says a lot. Pro and troupe members together—first girls, then guys—danced hot numbers; the girls did a “rain dance” that Witney choreographed, and the guys danced shirtless in black tux-like coats/pants, all fantastic, of course. Solo artist Hailee Steinfeld and bands One Republic and Lady Antebellum each performed twice. Season 10’s Nicole Scherzinger danced to “Do You Love Me?” from the new “Dirty Dancing,” which will air tomorrow night. All contestants from this season returned tonight; it was good to see them, and we could easily remember why most of them were eliminated weeks ago. Certain pairs replayed certain dances from earlier weeks: Sharna/Bonner revisited their cute/sexy Country/cowboy dance; Nancy/Artem and Normani/Val did the Samba (with Bruno as a background dancer for Normani); Peta/Nick and Heather/Maks Rhumba’ed (couples separately); David/Lindsay redid “Magic Mike”; Rashad/Emma Cha-Cha’ed; Simone/Sasha redid their Contemporary; the sweet Mr. T wore a small Mirrorball dangling from a large chain (reminiscent of “The A-Team”) while he rapped about “Take a chance; you can do it.” Charo didn’t try to dance; instead, she did something very impressive, showing her skills as a longtime award-winning Flamenco guitarist (I loved it). 24-HOUR FUSION DANCE: Len said, “It’s as much about the will to win as the skill to win.” David Ross: Foxtrot/Salsa. Judges: 9. Me: 9. Well done in choreography and execution. He...

Dancing With The Stars Season 24, Week 10, FINALS, Night 1 It’s Week 10, Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin hosted. Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, Julianne Hough, and Bruno Tonioli judged. The Cast: Val Chmerkovskiy + Normani Kordei, Singer Emma Slater + Rashad Jennings, NFL Running Back Lindsay Arnold + David Ross, CHI Cubs Baseball Catcher (won 2016 World Series; retired) Dancing With The Stars: Week 10 Finals, Night 1, Analysis & Results (May 22, 2017) This is Finals Week on Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin got right down to business by getting the first couple on the dance floor for the first of two dances. The first dance: a redemption of an earlier week. The second dance: The freestyle! The performances were a joy to watch. The judges’ scores were fair. DANCE #1: REDEMPTION DANCE (A re-do of an earlier week) David Ross: Vien. Waltz (Week 4). Judges: 8-8-9-8. Me: 9. David has improved a lot since Week 4 to keep his bum tucked under; still, though, it wasn’t perfect tonight. Nor was his posture. But he was close; still hardworking, sweet, likable, and entertaining. (Week 4’s scores were: Judges 7-8-8-8; Me 8.) We have not seen him do: a Rhumba, a Samba, a Tango, Contemporary, or a Charleston. Normani Kordei: Modified/Untradl. Quickstep (Week 1). Judges: 10-9-9-10. Me: 9. Normani and Val tried to improve upon Week 1’s Quickstep, which also was modified but much closer to traditional than tonight’s in both content and dress. She executed very well in dress and content that were much too untraditional for my tastes and, so, not quite entertaining enough. (Week 1’s scores were: Judges 7-6-7-7; Me 7.5—lower than she deserved.) We have not seen her do: a Samba, a Tango, a standard Waltz, or a Charleston. Rashad Jennings: Tradl. Viennese Waltz (Week 2). Judges: 10. Me: 10. Rashad, without any background in dance, was a pretty-good dancer in Week 2 and quickly improved a lot; he has been consistently good while improving and honing the craft all season long. He soon learned to control his ‘football’ hands and size-14 feet. Just recently, he learned to finish every arm movement and to use his hands as a dancer must, both with stunning grace. Tonight’s V. Waltz was beautiful, smooth, graceful, and even a tad sexual but perfectly tasteful while portraying a truly connected and loving couple; it had the required rise and fall in the footwork and was absolutely...

Dancing With The Stars Season 24, Week 9 Results It’s Week 9, Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin hosted. Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, Julianne Hough, and Bruno Tonioli judged. The Cast: Val Chmerkovskiy + Normani Kordei, Singer Sasha Farber + Simone Biles, U.S. Olympic Gymnast (most-decorated) Emma Slater + Rashad Jennings, NFL Running Back Lindsay Arnold + David Ross, CHI Cubs Baseball Catcher (won 2016 World Series; retired) Dancing With The Stars: Week 9 Analysis & Results (May 15, 2017) This is Semi-Finals Week on Dancing with the Stars! The 4 remaining couples did not disappoint. The judges’ scores were fair. At the end of round 1, Cheryl Burke performed a number from her highly successful tour that just finished in Japan and will soon start in the USA (30 cities). Singer Calum Scott performed twice (beautiful voice). All couples got post-dance interviews with Erin, except Rashad did not when he ended rounded two, because the show was short on time to present the elimination vote. DANCE #1: JUDGES’ CHALLENGE Normani Kordei: Tradl. Vien. Waltz. Judges: 9. Me: 9. Len worked with her, wanting her and Val to achieve 12 consecutive bars of the Viennese Waltz in hold. Mission accomplished! She had a stumble early on, though, which every judge commented on. The only thing I didn’t care for was that whereas the V. Waltz is normally a soft and smoothly-flowing dance, this one had quite a few sharp moments, which is why I scored only a 9. She’s due for: a Samba, a Tango, a Jazz, a standard Waltz, or a Charleston. David Ross: Traditional Foxtrot. Judges: 9-8-9-8. Me: 9. Julianne worked with David to keep his bum tucked under—and it worked. He showed good kicks, hold, and form, and rise and fall in his footwork. The dance was cute and happy. I truly enjoyed it. He’s due for: a Rhumba, a Samba, a Tango, Contemporary, or a Charleston. Simone Biles: Tradl. Jive. Judges: 10-10-10-10. Me: 10. Simone clearly had a lot of fun with this one, after Carrie Ann worked with her to show more personality. It was cute, with many kicks and flicks, all of which were sharp. She maintained perfect technique even though she let loose. Her facial expressions were cute, too. She’s due for: a Salsa, a Rhumba, an Arg. Tango (maybe), a Jazz, a standard Waltz. Rashad Jennings: Tradl. Rhumba. Judges:...

WRITING with SEMINAL SEMICOLONS: Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em? Life is all about relationships. People have relationships with other people, creatures, and things; with music and dance, books, words and punctuation in writing. Relationships and writing are crucial in life. Specifically, we even have a relationship with the semicolon, that mid-line dot with a comma curved beneath it like one half of a spooning couple. Like it or not, the semicolon is a useful and necessary punctuation mark to use in our writing. An occasional person, even an academic, thinks it should be eliminated from our options and our culture. But, eliminating the semicolon shouldn’t and can’t be done. Why? The semicolon connects and clarifies relationships, those things we can’t live normally without. I recently read a well-written article by a business consultant. Surprising to me, he used all periods instead of connecting related thoughts with semicolons. Doing that made his writing a bit choppy with many short sentences (complete thoughts, also known as independent clauses) and left a few question marks on my mind. Although he used “relationship” a few times, he seemed to have a relationship problem with the semicolon. Please consider the following two paragraphs and then my redo of affected sentences in italics. First paragraph: “After the show, reconnect as promised in a timely manner. Offer something of value related to the conversation you had with someone. What you offer does not have to be tied to your product or service. It needs to be relevant to the prospect or customer. They’ll remember that a lot longer than anything else.” He offers facts and helpful tips. Question: What in that paragraph does “It needs to be relevant to the prospect or customer” relate to? It does not relate directly to the first sentence. It relates somewhat to the second sentence and to the last. But, it relates directly to and connects completely and logically with the third sentence; it finishes the third sentence, explaining what is not required and what to do. So, my recommendation employs the strong semicolon to connect the two related independent clauses: “What you offer does not have to be tied to your product or service; it needs to be relevant to the prospect or customer.” The connection could also include a transitional word (underscored): “What you offer does not have to be tied to your product or service; however, it needs to be relevant to the prospect or customer.” Second paragraph: “And,...

Dancing With The Stars Season 24, Week 8 Results It’s Week 8, Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars! Tom and Erin hosted. Carrie Ann Inaba (CAI), Len Goodman, Julianne Hough, and Bruno Tonioli judged. The Cast: Val Chmerkovskiy + Normani Kordei, Singer Sasha Farber + Simone Biles, U.S. Olympic Gymnast (most-decorated) Sharna Burgess + Bonner Bolton, Pro Bull Rider/Model Emma Slater + Rashad Jennings, NFL Running Back Lindsay Arnold + David Ross, CHI Cubs Baseball Catcher (won 2016 World Series; retired) Dancing With The Stars: Week 8 Analysis & Results (May 8, 2017) This is Trio Round Week on Dancing with the Stars! The 5 remaining couples performed knowing that only one of them would go home. A few performances were WOW! One was only pretty good. The judges’ scores were fair most of the way. Some couples got post-dance interviews with Erin. Rashad Jennings: Traditional Jive. Judges: 9. Me: 9.5. The positive: (Sorry that I forgot to note the song.) The dance was lively, joyful, creative, cute, and very well done. I loved it! The negative/work on: Rashad’s flicks/kicks should’ve been more energetic, sharper and higher. Yes, they should be by now, and as soon as he aces this, he could get all 10’s every time because everything else is FAB! He’s due for: a Rhumba, a Samba, a Salsa, a Jazz, a Quickstep, a standard Waltz, or a Charleston. Normani Kordei: Tradl. Contemporary. Judges: 10. Me: 10. The positive: “Freedom” from bullying and to accept oneself. Intensely physical and expressive in every way. Superb storytelling in superb choreography! Again, she danced at pro level. THIS girl is the real deal! WOW! I loved it! Again, Val’s choreo should be nominated for an award. #2 DANCE OF THE NIGHT (just because I enjoyed my #1 DOTN even more). Julianne said that Normani has grown so far and way beyond since Week 1; I say that’s BS–with me, Normani came in at a 7.5 (probably only because of how Val’s choreo landed that first week), shot straight up to a 9, and has stayed at 9’s and 10’s. She’s due for: a Samba, a Tango, a Jazz, a standard Waltz, a Viennese Waltz, or a Charleston. Bonner Bolton: Tradl. Arg. Tango. Judges: 8-7-8-7. Me: 8.5. The positive: “Believer.” Sharna chose this song in reference to the life-altering bull-riding accident that left Bonner paralyzed only 16 months ago. He had a mere 1% to 5% chance to just walk again! But...

Join the newsletter

We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer.

About Me

Professionally, after decades of employment for others, Vickie Weaver founded Writestyle in 1996 to provide writing, editing, proofreading, training, and more to clients worldwide. She has written and/or edited for “Coexistence Magazine” (national), “Ohio Magazine,” and various newspapers. In addition, she has edited or contributed to the writing of numerous books. Personally, she has won awards and publication for some of her poems and is compiling a book of her poetry. She enjoys music and dance, and strives for beauty and harmony in life.